sexta-feira, dezembro 03, 2010

Edgar Lee Masters' Andy the Night-Watch


Linda Sue Grimes


Perhaps one of the more pleasant accounts, "Andy the Night-Watch" reports his simple duties as a Spoon River security guard.

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Andy the Night-Watch” from Spoon River Anthology features a night watchman who mentions Doc Hill in his report. Andy’s account is straight forward without the innuendos that accompany many of the reports. Andy is philosophical about his lot, seeing himself in a long line of men who have performed his job of night watchman for Spoon River.

Interestingly, because Andy encounters Doc Hill, he supports the doc’s claim that he went about Spoon River both night and day caring for the sick. Andy passes no moral judgment on the doc. And Andy reveals no moral turpitude as so many of these characters do.

First Movement: “In my Spanish cloak”

Andy first describes his clothing and accessories; he wore a “Spanish cloak,” an “old slouch hat,” and “overshoes of felt.” For company and possible security assistance, he had his “faithful dog,” Tyke along with him. And he also carried a “knotted hickory cane.”

Such are the simple necessities for a night watchman in the small town of Spoon River. Apparently, there was no need for a weapon other than the hickory cane.

Second Movement: “I slipped about with a bull’s-eye lantern”

After cataloguing his accessories, Andy then proceeds to report his duties: he “slipped about with a bull’s eye lantern.” He inserts a further item, the lantern, that fills out the list of accessories that he either carried or wore.

He moved slowly “from door to door on the square.” Not much seemed to be happening, so he was free to notice the “midnight stars” that “wheeled around.” And he heard “the bell in the steeple,” which he describes as making a murmuring sound as the wind blew past them.

Third Movement: “And the weary steps of old Doc Hill”

It is in the third movement that Andy mentions “old Doc Hill,” whom the reader has previously encountered. Andy would hear the doctor’s “weary steps,” and Andy claims that those steps “sounded like on who walks in sleep.”

Andy then mentions that he heard a far-off rooster crowing, which suggests that it is close to dawn. The implication supports Doc Hill’s report about caring for the sick all through the night.

Fourth Movement: “And now another is watching Spoon River”

Andy then returns to his present circumstances: he avers that someone else is now performing his night job of “watching Spoon River.” And he places himself in the long line of history: the new person is watching “as others watched before me,” he philosophically opines.

Both Andy and Doc Hill are now in their graves where no medical attention is required and where no one will break in to steal from rightful owners. No one needs “to guard” anything in this final resting place.

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